After our successful drill last week, the main event intoday’s sol 765 plan is dropping off the drilled sample in CheMin, which willtell us what minerals are in the rocks of Pahrump Hills.
After our successful drill last week, the main event in
today’s sol 765 plan is dropping off the drilled sample in CheMin, which will
tell us what minerals are in the rocks of Pahrump Hills. CheMin works by
shining a beam of X-rays through the sample and recording how the X-rays
reflect off of the structure of the crystals in the sample. To make sure that
every possible orientation of the crystals is measured, the sample holder
vibrates, causing the powdered rock to mix around in the sample cell.
The drill sample has been sieved so that only particles
smaller than 150 microns will go to CheMin. The rover will dump out the particles
that are coarser than 150 microns, take pictures of them with Mastcam and MAHLI,
and measure their composition with APXS. Not all of the fine-grained sample
will go to CheMin: some will be saved for analysis by SAM, and in case we want
to re-analyze it with CheMin. Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Written by Ryan Anderson, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
